“Aye!”
“Nay! He is too well guarded.”
“Not he!”
“Let us stab him and take his head with us; there well may be a price on it.”
They took a vote on it and were agreed; but that did not suit King at all, whatever Muhammad Anim's personal deserts might be. To let him be stabbed would be to leave Yasmini without a check on her of any kind, and then might India defend herself! Yet to leave the mullah and Yasmini both at large would be almost equally dangerous, for they might form an alliance. There must be some other way, and he set out to gain time.
“Nay, nay, sahibs!” he urged. “Nay, nay!”
“Why not?”
“Sahibs, I have wife and children in Lahore. Same are most dear to me and I to them. I find it expedient to make great effort for my pardon. Ye are but fifty. Ye are less than fifty. Nay, let us gather a hundred men.”
“Who shall find a hundred?” somebody demanded, and there was a chorus of denial. “We be all in this camp who ate the salt.”
It was plain, though, that his daring to hold out only gave them the more confidence in him.